


Sleep Perchance

by happygolovely



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Adopted Children, Angst, Comfort, Domestic Bliss, Dreams, Dreams vs. Reality, Family, Family Dynamics, Home, Hope, M/M, POV Oswald Cobblepot, Parenthood, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 12:56:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13411716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happygolovely/pseuds/happygolovely
Summary: "I'm dreaming, aren't I?""Yes, of course. That doesn't make it any less real."





	Sleep Perchance

Oswald wakes up on a feather bed in his father’s home. The house warm and full of laughter. Gets up from the bed and moves with ease. The cane nowhere to be seen.

Opens the curtains and sees falling snow. Dresses for the day, in the finest silks he has ever felt. Looks in the mirror and finds all his harsh, jutting edges softened. Happiness. So that’s what that looks like on his face.

Goes downstairs and finds his mother making tea. She looks content, settled. Her hair wild and free as she dances to the music on the gramophone. She never did have a sense of rhythm. He holds her and cries. She hushes him gently, wipes away his tears. Hands him a cup of hot tea.

They sit in the parlor and she tells him about the lilies she is growing in the garden and how the winter winds chased them away. Spring will return she promises.They will blossom once more.

Elijah comes into the parlor and presses an absent minded kiss to Oswald’s forehead and another to Gertrude’s cheek. He sits between them, holding her hand and telling them about his newest customer and the splendid suit he is designing. He is still debating with Oswald over the proper materials when the door opens.

Ed races in with Martin on his back, holding onto his shoulders. They are laughing and Martin is signing something with his hands. Ed makes an elaborate hand gesture that sends Martin into a fresh round of giggles. Ed smiles and sets him down gently on the floor. Martin climbs off his back and runs to Oswald, jumping into his arms.

Oswald holds him close and looks up at Ed over his shoulders. “Thank you.” He mouths. Ed nods back at him and moves in next to Gertrude. Apparently they have knitting to discuss.  

Martin pulls out his sketchbook and shows him his drawings. He’s getting better every day. Apparently Ed has taken him to the museum. Page after page of birds. Some more anatomically correct than others and he sees the places were Ed switched into lecture mode.

Tucked between the pages, a family photograph. Martin stands in front, Oswald adjusting his tie. Gertrude and Elijah in the back smiling down at them fondly. Ed’s thumb over the camera lens.

On the back in Martin’s handwriting: Papa & The Grandbirds.

Oswald doesnt know whether to laugh or cry and a wheezing sound comes out instead. Ed hands him a handkerchief across the table, an umbrella embroidered on the corner. It’s base looks like a question mark.

They sit around the fire, a new round of tea. Gertrude and Elijah cuddled up in the love seat. He whispers something in her ear and she smiles brighter than Oswald has ever seen her. 

Martin on the floor with a model train set. He seems determined to dismantle the entire thing. Take it apart and scavenge it for parts.

Ed will be pleased.

Oswald sits beside the fire and holds onto this warmth for as long as he can. It will fade fast, it never stays with him long.

Ed sits beside him and takes his hand. Tracing the lines of it. He can read his entire history from the calluses and scars. Not here though, not in this place. Here Oswald’s hands are gentle and tender.

Never lifted a finger for anything in his life, never laid a hand on someone in anger. He’s clean here. Unsullied, unmeasured.

Words spun from morning dew, heart drips with honey. It coats over everything he touches, a sweetness remarkable and rare.

He will never be this man. Why does he even bother to try?

“Something’s troubling you.” Ed sounds sure of this. “Tell me what it is, let me help you.”

Oswald can’t take his eyes off him. Soaks in every inch of his profile, etching it into stone. Carries the memory of him, like chains around his ankles weighing his body down. Dragging him under.  

“I’m dreaming, aren’t I?”

“Yes, of course. That doesn’t make it any less real.”

Oswald sighs and Ed turns his hand over. Places a single, gentle kiss to the center of his palm. It spreads out over his skin like water.

“The night is yours. Anything you wish. Anything at all.”

“Stay with me. As long as you can.”

He will leave in the morning. He is always leaving.

“As long as you’ll have me.”

Forever then.

“Where are you now, where can I find you?”  

Ed frowns disapprovingly.

“I couldn’t tell you that even if I wanted to, which I do not.”

Oswald pulls him close, resting his head on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have asked. It’s just that I miss you.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”  

Oswald’s smile brittle and cracked. He can already feel the edges of the world slip away.

“You always say that.”  

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: happygoloony


End file.
